Box Score Boxscore

LAKELAND, Fla. - East Carolina University transfer Mike Grace started his career at Florida Southern College with a bang by hitting a pair of home runs and driving in four in leading his team to a 5-1 triumph over Flagler College in a non-conference baseball game Wednesday night at Henley Field. Florida Southern is ranked No. 1 in the preseason NCAA Division II Top 25 poll and is the defending national champions.

Grace hit the first pitch he saw over the leftfield fence to put the Florida Southern (1-0) ahead 2-0. He drove in Adam Calderone who reached on an error in the previous at bat. In his next trip, Grace blasted a solo home run to left putting the Mocs up 3-0.

Flagler (2-1) scratched for a run in the top of the fifth when Kenny Bargfeldt (Fishers, Ind./Ball State U.) reached on an error by the Florida Southern shortstop, scoring Chris Guerra (Fresmont, Calif./Mount Mercy College) from third. Guerra led off the fifth with an infield single.

The Mocs plated single runs in the fifth and seventh innings.

Joe Walczak went four innings to earn the victory due to a predetermined pitching order by the Florida Southern coaches. Walczak fanned eight and yielded only five hits. Four other Moc pitches saw at least one complete inning of work.

Wes Burgess (St. Augustine, Fla./Bartram Trail HS) (0-1) took the loss on the hill for the Saints. He tossed five innings allowing three earned runs and struck out three. Guerra paced the Flagler offense with three singles while Mike Scott (Jacksonville, Fla./The Bolles School) collected a pair of singles. The Saints tallied 11 singles on the evening, but stranded 14 runners on base.

Flagler hosts Limestone College on Friday night a 6 p.m. at Flagler Stadium in the first game of a four-game series. The teams will meet in a 2 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday and 1 p.m. nine-inning game on Sunday.

Florida Southern 5, Flagler 1 (02/01/06 at Lakeland, Fla.)
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Flagler............. 000 010 000 - 1 11 1 (2-1)
Florida Southern.... 201 010 10X - 5 8 2 (1-0)
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Battery: Flagler - Burgess; Jackson(6); Mathews(8) and Marquez. Florida Southern - Walczak; Polk(5); Robinson(6); Milton(8); DeYoung(9) and Rodriguez.
Win-Walczak(1-0) Loss-Burgess(0-1) T-2:26 A-174
2B FSC – Calderone; Schultz.
HR FSC - Grace 2 (2).
Game notes:
Season opener for #1-ranked & defending NCAA Division II champion Florida
Southern.